thy soul, in that it cannot, will not, be content with such low and dry
as the baseborn spirits that are of the world can and do content
themselves withal. And as to the greatness of the things thou aimest
at, though they be, as they are indeed, things that have not their
like, yet they are not too big for God to give, and He has promised to
give them to the soul that seeketh Him; yea, He hath prepared the
kingdom, given the kingdom, and laid up in the kingdom of heaven, the
things that thy soul longeth for, presseth after, and cannot be content
without (Luke 7:32; Matt 25:14; Col 1:5; 1 Peter 1:4). As for thy
making a trial of the successfulness of thy endeavours upon things more
interim and base, that is but a trick of the old deceiver. God has
refused to give His children the great, the brave, and glorious things
of this world, a few only excepted, because He has prepared some better
thing for them (1 Cor 1:27; Heb 11:36-40). Wherefore faint not, but let
thy hand be strong, for thy work shall be rewarded (Gal 6:9). And since
thy soul is at work for soul-things, for divine and eternal things, God
will give them to thee; thou art not of the number of them that draw
back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the
soul; thou shalt receive the end of thy faith, the salvation of thy
soul (Heb 10:39; 1 Peter 1:8,9).
Objection 2. But all my discouragement doth not lie in this. I see so
much of the sinful vileness of my nature, and feel how ready it is to
thrust itself forth at all occasions to the defiling of my whole man,
and more. Now this added to the former, adds to my discouragement
greatly.
Answer. This should be cause of humiliation and of self-abasement, but
not of discouragement; for the best of saints have their weaknesses,
these their weaknesses. The ladies as well as she that grinds at the
mill, know what doth attend that sex; and the giants in grace as well
as the weak and shrubs, are sensible of the same things, which thou
layest in against thy exercising of hope, or as matter of thy
discouragement. Poor David says (Psa 77:2) ‘My soul refused to be
comforted,’ upon this very account, and Paul cries out under sense of
this, ‘O wretched man that I am!’ and comes as it were to the borders
of doubt, saying, ‘Who shall deliver me?’ (Rom 7:24). Only he was quick
at remembering that Christ was his righteousness and price of
redemption, and there he relieved himself.
Again; this should drive us to faith in Christ; for therefore are the
corruptions by Divine permission still left in us; they are not left in
us to drive us to unbelief, but to faith—that is, to look to the
perfect righteousness of Christ for life. And for further help,
consider, that therefore Christ liveth in heaven, making intercession,
that thou mightest be saved by His life, not by thine, and by His
intercessions, not by thy perfections (Rom 5: 6-9; Col 1:20). Let not
therefore thy weaknesses be thy discouragements; only let them put thee
upon the duties required of thee by the gospel—to wit, faith, hope,
repentance, humility, watchfulness, diligence, etc. (1 Peter 1:13; 5:5;
2 Cor 7:11; Mark 13:37; 2 Peter 1:10).
Objection 3. But I find, together with these things, weakness and
faintness as to my graces; my faith my hope, my love, and desires to
these and all other Christian duties are weak; I am like the man in the
dream, that would have run, but could not; that would have fought, but
could not; and that would have fled, but could not.
Answer 1. Weak graces are graces, weak graces may grow stronger; but if
the iron be blunt, put to the more strength (Eccl 10:10). 2. Christ
seems to be most tender of the weak: ‘He shall gather the lambs with
His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that
are with young.’ (Isa 40:11). And again, ‘I will seek that which was
lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that
which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick’ (Eze 34:16).
Only here will thy wisdom be manifested—to wit, that thou grow in
grace, and that thou use lawfully and diligently the means to do it (2
Peter 3:18; Phil 2:10,11; 1 Thess 3:11-13).
USE SIXTH, I come, in the next place, to a use of terror, and so I
shall conclude. Is it so? is the soul such an excellent thing, and is
the loss thereof so unspeakably great? Then this showeth the sad state
of those that lose their souls. We use to count those in a deplorable
condition, that by one only stroke, are stript of their whole estate;
the fire swept away all that he had; or all that he had was in such a
ship, and that ship sunk into the bottom of the sea; this is sad news,
this is heavy tidings, this is bewailed of all, especially if such were
great in the world, and were brought by their loss from a high to a
low, to a very low condition; but alas! what is this to the loss about
which we have been speaking all this while? The loss of an estate may
be repaired, or if not, a man may find friends in his present
deplorable condition to his support, though not recovery; but far will
this be from him that shall lose his soul. Ah! he has lost his soul,
and can never be recovered again, unless hell fire can comfort him;
unless he can solace himself in the fiery indignation of God; terrors
will be upon him, anguish and sorrow will swallow him up, because of
present misery; slighted and set at nought by God and His angels, he
will also be in this miserable state, and this will add to sorrow,
sorrow, and to his vexation of spirit, howling.
To present you with emblems of tormented spirits, or to draw before
your eyes the picture of hell, are things too light for so ponderous a
subject as this; nor can any man frame or invent words, be they never
so deep and profound, sufficient to the life to set out the torments of
hell.
All those expressions of fire, brimstone, the lake of fire, a fiery
furnace, the bottomless pit, and a hundred more to boot, are all too
short to let forth the miseries of those that shall be damned souls.
‘Who knoweth the power or God’s anger?’ (Psa 90:11). None at all; and
unless the power of that can be known, it must abide as unspeakable as
the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.
We hear it thunder, we see it lighten; yea, eclipses, comets, and
blazing stars are all subject to smite us with terror; the thought of a
ghost, of the appearing of a dead wife, a dead husband, or the like,
how terrible are these things! 36 But alas, what are these? mere flea
bitings, nay, not so bad, when compared with the torments of hell.
Guilt and despair, what are they? Who understands them unto perfection?
The ireful looks of an infinite Majesty, what mortal in the land of the
living can tell us to the full, how dismal and breaking to the soul of
a man it is, when it comes as from ‘the power of His anger,’ and arises
from the utmost indignation? Besides, who knows of all the ways by
which the Almighty will inflict His just revenges upon the souls of
damned sinners? When Paul was caught up to the third heaven, he heard
words that were unspeakable; and he that goes down to hell shall hear
groans that are unutterable. Hear, did I say? they shall feel them,
they shall feel them burst from their wounded spirit as thunderclaps do
from the clouds. Once I dreamed that I saw two (whom I knew) in hell,
and methought I saw a continual dropping from heaven, as of great drops
of fire lighting upon them, to their sore distress. Oh! words are
wanting, thoughts are wanting, imagination and fancy are poor things
here; hell is another kind of place and state than any alive can think;
and since I am upon this subject, I will here treat a little of hell as
the Scriptures will give me leave, and the rather because I am upon a
use of terror, and because hell is the place of torment (Luke 16).
1. Hell is said to be beneath, as heaven is said to be above; because
as above signifieth the utmost joy, triumph, and felicity, so beneath
is a term most fit to describe the place of hell by, because of the
utmost opposition that is between these two; hell being the place of
the utmost sorrow, despair, and misery; there are the underlings ever
trampled under the feet of God; they are beneath, below, under (Prov
15:24)!
2. Hell is said to be darkness, and heaven is said to be light; light,
to show the pleasureableness and the desireableness of heaven; and
darkness, to show the dolesome and wearisomeness of hell; and how
weary, oh! how weary and wearisomely, as I may say, will damned souls
turn themselves from side to side, from place to place, in hell, while
swallowed up in the thickest darkness, and griped with the burning
thoughts of the endlessness of that most unutterable misery (Matt
22:13)!
3. Men are said to go up to heaven, but they are said to go down to
hell; up, because of exaltation, and because they must abound in beauty
and glory that go to heaven; down, because of those sad dejections,
that great deformity and vile contempt that sin hath brought them to
that go to hell (Eze 32:18).
4. Heaven is called a hill or mount, (Heb 12); hell is called a pit, or
hole, (Rev 9:2); heaven, a mount, the mount Zion, (Rev 14); to show how
God has, and will exalt them that loved Him in the world; hell, a pit
or hole, to show how all the ungodly shall be buried in the yawning
paunch and belly of hell, as in a hollow cave.
5. Heaven! It is said of heaven, the height of heaven, (Job 22:12). and
of hell, the bottomless pit, (Rev 9:2; 20:3). The height of heaven, to
show that the exaltation of them that do ascend up thither is both
perfect and unsearchable; and hell, the bottomless pit, to show that
the downfall of them that descend in thither will never be at an
end—down, down, down they go, and nothing but down, down still!
6. Heaven! It is called the paradise of God, (Rev 2:7); but hell, the
burning lake (Rev 20:15). A paradise, to show how quiet, harmless,
sweet, and beautiful heaven shall be to them that possess it, as the
garden was at the beginning of the creation; hell, the burning lake, to
allude to Sodom, that since its destruction is turned into a stinking
lake, and to show that as their distress was unutterable, and to the
highest amazement, full of confusion and horror, when that tempestuous
storm of fire and brimstone was rained from the Lord out of heaven upon
them, so, to the utmost degree, shall it be with the souls that are
lost and cast into hell.
7. It is said that there are dwelling houses, or places in the kingdom
of heaven (John 14: 1-3; Zech 3:7; Isa 57:1,2). And also that there are
the cells or the chambers of death in hell (Prov 7:27). There are
mansions or dwelling places in heaven, to show that every one of them
that go thither might have his reward, according to his work; and that
there is hell, and the lowest hell (Deu 32:22; Psa 86:13). And the
chambers of death in hell to show there are places and states in hell
too, for sinners to be imprisoned in, according to their faults; hence
it is said of some, These shall receive greater damnation, (Luke
20:47); and of others, That it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and
Gomorrah in the judgment than for them, etc. (Luke 10:12, 14).
The lowest hell. How many hells there are above that, or more tolerable
tormenting places than the most exquisite torments there, God, and they
that are there, know best; but degrees without doubt there are; and the
term ‘lowest’ shows the utmost and most exquisite distress; so the
chambers of death, the second death in hell, for so I think the words
should be understood—‘Her house is the way to hell, going down to the
chambers of death’ (Prov 7:27). These are the chambers that the
chambers in the temple, or that the dwelling places in the house in
heaven, are opposed to: and this opposition shows, that as there will
be degrees of glory in heaven, so there will of torments in hell; and
there is all reason for it, since the punishment must be inflicted by
God, the infinitely just. Why should a poor, silly, ignorant man,
though damned, be punished with the same degree of torment that he that
has lived a thousand times worse shall be punished with? It cannot be;
justice will not admit it; guilt, and the quality of the transgression,
will not admit it; yea, the tormenting fire of hell itself will not
admit it; for if hell fire can kindle upon nothing but sin, and the
sinner for the sake of it, and if sin be as oil to that fire, as the
Holy Ghost seems to intimate, saying, ‘Let it come into his bowels like
water, and like oil into his bones’ (Psa 109:18). Then as the quantity
of the oil is, so will the fire burn, and so will the flaming flame
ascend, and the smoke of their torment, for ever and ever. Suppose a
piece of timber a little bedaubed with oil, and another that has been
soaking in it many a year, which of these two, think you, would burn
fiercest? and from whence would the flaming flame ascend highest, and
make the most roaring noise? Suppose two vessels filled with oil, one
containing the quantity of a pint, the other containing the quantity of
a hogshead, and suppose that in one place they were both set on fire,
yet so that they might not intermix flames; nay, though they did, yet
all would conclude that the most amazing roaring flame would be upon
the biggest vessel, and would be the effect of the greatest quantity of
oil; so it will be with the wicked in hell. The lowest hell is for the
biggest sinners, and theirs will be the greater damnation, and the more
intolerable torment, though he that has least of this oil of sin in his
bones, and of the kindlings of hell fire upon him, will find he has
hell enough, and will be weary enough thereof, for still he must
struggle with flames that are everlasting; for sin is such a thing,
that it can never be burned out of the soul and body of a damned
sinner.
But again; having treated thus of hell, we will now speak a word or two
of sin, for that is it upon which hell fire seizes, and so on the soul
by that. Sin! it is the sting of hell—the sting of death is sin (1 Cor
15:56). By ‘death’ in this place we must not understand that which is
natural, but that which is in hell, the second death, even everlasting
damnation; for natural death the saints die, yea, and also many
sinners, without the least touch of a sting from that; but here is a
death that has a sting to hurt, to twinge, and wound the sinner with,
even then when it has the utmost mastery of him. And this is the death
that the saved are delivered from; not that which is natural, for that
is the end of them as of others (1 Cor 15:55; Eccl 2:15, 16). But the
second death, the death in hell, for that is the portion of the damned,
and it is from that that the saints have a promise of deliverance—‘He
that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death’ (Rev 2:11). And
again, ‘Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first
resurrection; on such the second death hath no power’ (Rev 20:6). It is
this death, then, that hath the chambers to hold each damned soul in:
and sin is the twining, winding, biting, poisoning sting of this death,
or of these chambers of hell, for sinners to be stricken, stung, and
pierced with. ‘The sting of death is sin.’ Sin, the general of it, 37
is the sting of hell, for there would be no such thing as torment even
there, were it not that sin is there with sinners; for, as I have
hinted already, the fire of hell, the indignation and wrath of God, can
fasten and kindle upon nothing but for or because of sin; sin, then, as
sin, is the sting and the hell of hells, of the lowest and upmost
hells. Sin, I say, in the nature of it, simply as it is concluded both
by God and the damned to be a breach of His holy law, so it is the
sting of the second death, which is the worm of hell. But then, as sin
is such a sting in itself, so it is heightened, sharpened, and made
more keen and sharp by those circumstances that as concomitants attend
it in every act: for there is not a sin at any time committed by man,
but there is some circumstance or other attends it, that makes it, when
charged home by God’s law, bigger and sharper, and more venom and
poisonous to the soul than if it could be committed without them; and
this is the sting of the hornet, the great sting. I sinned without a
cause to please a base lust, to gratify the devil; here is the sting!
Again, I preferred sin before holiness, death before life, hell before
heaven, the devil before God, and damnation before a Saviour; here is
the sting! Again, I preferred moments before everlastings, temporals
before eternals, to be racked and always slaying before the life that
is blessed and endless; here is the sting! Also, this I did against
light, against convictions, against conscience, against persuasion of
friends, ministers, and the godly lives which I beheld in others; here
is the sting! Also, this I did against warnings, forewarnings, yea,
though I saw others fall before my face by the mighty hand of God for
committing of the same; here is the sting!
Sinners, would I could persuade you to hear me out! A man cannot commit
a sin, but, by the commission of it, he doth, by some circumstance or
other, sharpen the sting of hell, and that to pierce himself through
and through, and through, with many sorrows (1 Tim 6:10) Also, the
sting of hell to some will be, that the damnation of others stand upon
their score, for that by imitating of them, by being deluded by them,
persuaded by them, drawn in by them, they perish in hell for ever; and
hence it is that these principal sinners must die all these deaths in
themselves, that those damned ones that they have drawn into hell are
also to bear in their own souls for ever. And this God threatened to
the prince of Tyrus, that capital sinner, because by his pride, power,
practice, and policy, he cast down others into the pit; therefore saith
God to him, ‘They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die
the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas.’ And again;
‘Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of
strangers; for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God’ (Eze 28:8,10). Ah!
this will be the sting of them, of those that are principal, chief and,
as I may call them, the captain and ringleading sinners. Vipers will
come out of other men’s fire and flames, and settle upon, seize upon,
and for ever abide upon their consciences; and this will be the sting
of hell, the great sting of hell to them.
I will yet add to all this; how will the fairness of some for heaven,
even the thoughts of that, sting them when they come to hell! It will
not be so much their fall into the pit, as from whence they fell into
it, that will be to them the buzzing noise and sharpened sting of the
great and terrible hornet. ‘How art thou fallen from heaven, O
Lucifer!’ there is the sting (Isa 14:12). Thou that art exalted up to
heaven shalt be thrust down to hell, though thou hast made ‘thy nest
among the stars,’ from thence I will fetch thee down; there is a sting
(Matt 11:23; Oba 4). To be pulled, for and through love to some vain
lust, from the everlasting gates of glory, and caused to be swallowed
up for it in the belly of hell, and made to lodge for ever in the
darksome chambers of death, there is the piercing sting!
But again, as there is the sting of hell, so there is the strength of
that sting; for a sting though never so sharp, or venom, yet if it
wanteth strength to force it to the designed execution, it doth but
little hurt. But this sting has strength to cause it to pierce into the
soul; ‘the sting of death is sin: and the strength of sin is the law’
(1 Cor 15:56). Here then is the strength of the stings of hell; it is
the law in the perfect penalty of it; ‘for without the law, sin is
dead’ (Rom 7:8). Yea, again he saith, ‘where no law is, there is no
transgression’ (Rom 4:15). The law then followeth, in the executive
part of it, the soul into hell, and there strengtheneth sin, that sting
of hell, to pierce by its unutterable charging of it on the conscience,
the soul for ever and ever; nor can the soul justly murmur or repine at
God or at His law, for that then the sharply apprehensive soul will
well discern the justness, righteousness, reasonableness, and goodness
of the law, and that nothing is done by the law unto it, but that which
is just and equal. 38
This, therefore, will put great strength and force into sin to sting
the soul, and to strike it with the lashes of a scorpion. Add yet to
these the abiding life of God, the Judge and God of this law, will
never die. When princes die, the law may be altered by the which at
present transgressors are bound in chains; but oh! here is also that
which will make this sting so sharp and keen, the God that executes it
will never die. ‘It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the
living God’ (Heb 10:30, 31).
FOOTNOTES:
1 ‘Gospellers,’ a term of reproach given to our reformers under Henry
VIII; changed to ‘Puritan’ under Elizabeth and the Stuarts; and to
‘Methodist,’ or ‘Evangelical’ in more recent times. All these terms
were adopted by the reformers as an honorable distinction from the
openly profane.—Ed.
2 Having the most solemn warnings mercifully given to us by God, whose
word is truth itself, how strange it is, nay, how insane, to neglect
the Saviour. Our author, in his ‘Grace Abounding to the Chief of
Sinners,’ gives a solemn account of his own distracted feelings, when
he, by Divine warnings, contemplated the probable loss of his
never-dying soul; and, believing in the truth of God’s revealed will,
he felt, with inexpressible horror, his dangerous state. He describes
his mental anguish, by comparing it with the acute bodily sufferings of
a criminal broken on the wheel. Can we wonder that he was in ‘downright
earnest’ in seeking salvation. Oh! reader, may we be thus impelled to
fly from the wrath to come.—Ed.
3 Many have been the attempts to define the qualities, nature, and
residence of the soul. The sinful body is the sepulchre in which it is
entombed, until Christ giveth it life. The only safe guide, in such
inquiries, is to follow Bunyan, and ascertain ‘what saith the Lord’
upon a subject so momentous and so difficult for mortal eyes to
penetrate.—Ed.
4 The poor soul, under the irresistible constraints of conscience,
bears witness against itself; sits in judgment upon, and condemns
itself; and goeth, without a jailor, to conduct it, into the dread
prison, where it becomes its own tormentor. ‘A wounded spirit (or
conscience) who can bear?’—Ed.
5 My Lord Will-be-will was a very eminent captain in the town of
Mansoul, during the Holy War: wherefore Diabolus had a kindness for
him, and coveted to have him for one of his great ones, to act and do
in matters of the highest concern. Bunyan represents him as having been
wounded in the leg, during the seige. ‘Some of the prince’s army
certainly saw him limp, as he afterwards walked on the wall.’—Ed.
6 To the unregenerate, unsanctified soul, the language of the Saviour
in John 6:48-58, must appear, as it did to the Jews, perfectly
inexplicable—‘He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth
in me, and I in him.’ Blessed mystery! to be one with Christ, in
obedience to His will, and in partaking of His inheritance. To be
enabled to say, ‘For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.’—Ed.
7 Nothing short of a Divine influence can direct the passions of the
soul to a proper use of their energies. ‘Godly sorrow worketh
repentance—carefulness—indignation—fear—a vehement
desire—zeal—revenge,’ (2 Cor 7:11). Reader, has thy spirit been thus
excited against sin?—Ed.
8 This is perfectly true, but is only felt by those who are taught of
the Holy Spirit rightly to appreciate Divine worship. How many pay
undue respect to buildings in which public prayer is offered up? It is
the worship that consecrates the place and solemnizes the mind. Very
remarkably was this the case with Jacob while wandering in the open
wilderness. He put stones for his pillow, and in a dream saw the angels
visiting the earth, and said, THIS is the house of God, and the gate of
heaven.—Ed.
9 If the body, which is to return to dust, ‘is fearfully and
wonderfully made,’ past our finding out in its exquisite formation, how
much more so must be that immortal soul which we can only contemplate
by its own powers, and study in the Bible. It never dies, although it
may be dead in sin, in time; and be ever dying—ever in the agonies of
death, in eternity. Solemn consideration! May our adorning be ‘the
hidden man of the heart, which is not corruptible; a meek and quiet
spirit; that which is in the sight of God of great price’ (1 Peter
3:4).—Ed.
10 One of the first revelations to our race was, that ‘God breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.’
And this great and important fact has, by tradition, extended over the
whole of the human family.—Ed.
11 ‘An old horse shoe’ must be mentioned, to throw utter contempt upon
a custom, then very prevalent, and even now practised, of nailing an
old horse shoe over the door of the house, to prevent a witch from
entering. When will these absurd heathenish customs cease in Christian
England?—Ed.
12 ‘A point,’ the tag at the end of a lace.—Ed.